Memory cards are known in the art and contain intelligence in the form of a memory circuit or other electronic program. Some form of card reader reads the information or memory stored on the card. Such cards are used in many applications in today's electronic society, including video cameras, digital still cameras, smart phones, PDA's, music players, ATMs, cable television decoders, toys, games, PC adapters, multi-media cards and other electronic applications. Typically, a memory card includes a contact or terminal array for connection through a card connector to a card reader system and then to external equipment. The connector readily accommodates insertion and removal of the card to provide quick access to the information and program on the card. The card connector includes terminals for yieldingly engaging the contact array of the memory card.
The memory card connector often is mounted on a printed circuit board. The memory card, itself, writes or reads via the connector and can transmit between electrical appliances, such as a word processor, personal computer, personal data assistant or the like. With circuit board mounted connectors, the terminals of a connector include tail portions which are connected to appropriate circuit traces on the printed circuit board by various systems, such as surface mount technology where the tail portions are reflow soldered to the circuit traces. Through hole technology involves inserting the tail portions of the terminals into the holes in the printed circuit board for connection, as by soldering, to circuit traces on the board and/or in the holes.
FIG. 13 shows somewhat schematically a board mounted memory card connector, generally designated 12, for mounting on a printed circuit board according to the prior art and adapted for receiving existing memory cards. The connector includes a frame or housing, generally designated 14, having a front card-receiving end 16 and a rear end 18. The housing is molded of dielectric material such as plastic or the like and includes a pair of side walls 14a and 14b projecting forwardly from opposite ends of a rear terminal-mounting section 14c. A card-receiving space, generally designated 20, is formed between side walls 14a and 14b for receiving a memory card, generally designated 22, inserted into the connector in the direction of arrow “A”. A card eject mechanism, generally designated 24, is mounted on side wall 14b and includes a push rod 24a pivotally connected to an ejection rod 24b which is pivoted to the rear terminal-mounting section 14c of the housing at pivot point 26. After memory card 22 is inserted into the card-receiving space 20, the card can be ejected by pushing on rod 24a in the direction of arrow “B” which, in turn, pivots a distal end of ejecting rod 24b in the direction of arrow “C” to at least partially eject the memory card from its fully connected position. Insertion of a memory card back into the connector restores the eject mechanism to its ejection condition as shown in full lines in FIG. 13. The entire structure of connector 12 most often will be covered with a metal housing or shell to provide EMI protection for the memory card connections.
Memory card connectors of the prior art theoretically can be used with the relatively new standard ExpressCard type memory cards. However, current portable electronic products tend to be light, thin, short and small, and memory card connectors are becoming quite miniaturized such as in a notebook PC. The front end of the memory card connector preferably should approach the width of the memory card, itself, so that the connector occupies the smallest area without affecting surrounding electronic connectors. Card eject mechanisms typically create problems when attempting to miniaturize memory card connectors. The present invention is directed to solving these problems and satisfying a need for a memory card connector having a card eject mechanism which facilitates size reductions in the connector.